Post-Quali Comments 2019 Russian F1 GP
Charles Leclerc drove his Ferrari to his fourth pole in a row, using the soft tyre throughout Q2 and Q3. Mercedes, by contrast, was the only team to use the medium in Q2, and both their cars will start the race on this compound tomorrow.
Leclerc starts ahead of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, while the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's Max Verstappen were third and fourth fastest respectively.
Leclerc received the Pirelli Pole Position Award from Robert Shwartzman: the Russian Formula 3 driver, attached to the Ferrari Driver Academy, who claimed the inaugural FIA Formula 3 title this morning.
At this time the official starting grid isn't published yet by the Fia. We have summed up the drivers comments according the qualifying results for the 2019 Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Scuderia Ferrari
Charles Leclerc (P1 - 6th time in 2019)
Charles Leclerc
“The car was amazing to drive and the team did a great job anticipating the track evolution and setting up the car in the best way. We are just focusing on ourselves and the work we are doing seems to be slowly paying off. On my side, I continue focusing on the negative and working to improve and learn as much as I can.
The lap in Q3 was great, apart from when I lost the rear a bit in turns 16 and 17. I’m still happy to end the day with a result like this, but I am already fully focused on the race now.
Our race pace was good in FP2, which is a positive sign. We will start the race on different tyres to our competitors, but I don’t think that there is a huge difference between the soft and medium compounds in terms of their degradation. It will be difficult and crucial to keep everyone behind at the start, because it’s a long way to turn two. I will give it all I’ve got.”
Sebastian Vettel (P3 - 7th time in 2019)
Sebastian Vettel
“Overall I was reasonably happy with the car, but not entirely satisfied. Q1 was a bit complex as I made a mistake on my first attempt and then I was slowed by two yellow flags. I found it difficult to get into a clean rhythm, especially towards the end of Quali, when it was vital to extract the absolute maximum out of the car.
However the race is tomorrow and I am confident. We need a good start and then we can think about the rest of it. We start on the clean side, on the Softs while the Mercedes are on Mediums and being on different tyre strategies will make for an interesting fight. I believe we have made the right tyre choice for the start and I think we have an advantage over our rivals down the straight, so a tow might come into play.”
Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport
Lewis Hamilton (P2 - 8th time in 2019)
Lewis Hamilton
"It feels like a really positive weekend so far and I’m very happy with the job that we’ve done collectively. We’ve worked so hard until late last night and again today and it all came together in the end. The ultimate goal is always to get as close to 100 percent as possible and I don’t think there was much left in the car today. Sochi has always been a track that I struggled at, but today every lap was just getting better and better, there were no real mistakes and particularly the last lap felt good.
The Ferraris have some crazy speeds on the straights, so to split them is a very good scenario for us. Now we have to try and convert that split into something even better. It’s a long run into Turn 1, so it’s not always the best for a start on the harder tyre, but we’ve got to try something and it’s good that we’re able to go for a different strategy tomorrow. The team has done a really good job to put us in that position and I look forward to the fight."
Valtteri Bottas (P4 - 3rd time in 2019)
Valtteri Bottas
"It was tricky qualifying for me today. I was struggling in the last sector, particularly in Turn 13 where I had rear snaps mid-corner in pretty much every qualifying lap. Those snaps made the rear tyres overheat which made the rest of Sector 3 really tricky and I didn’t really find a way to drive around the issue.
In my second run in Q3, the snap was pretty big and I lost multiple tenths there, so I aborted the final lap. The Ferraris are quite a bit faster than us on the straights, our race pace looked decent yesterday and we’re starting on a different tyre to everyone around us, so we can hopefully create some opportunities. It’s still all to play for."
McLaren F1 Team
Carlos Sainz (P5 - 1st time in 2019)
Carlos Sainz Jr.
“Good day today! Improving every time we went on track and adapting to the circumstances. I couldn’t have done that lap without the help of the whole team. Thank you. To line up fifth tomorrow on the grid feels great after our initial struggles from yesterday. We managed to adapt, progress and find a way to recover from that, which shows we’re also doing a great job this year in understanding the car.
“I look forward to starting P5 tomorrow. I’m confident we’re capable of putting together a strong result. Congratulations to everyone today.”
Lando Norris (P7 - 3rd time in 2019)
Lando Norris
“A good qualifying and a good starting position for tomorrow. I had a positive feeling throughout qualifying – the track was improving, as was my car. It was pretty good but I didn’t nail the lap as well as I did in Singapore because I wasn’t able to put it all together.
“But I’m still happy, despite making a small mistake on my final push lap in Q3 – starting P7 due to Max’s penalty is a good position. Big thanks to the team, here at the track and back in Woking, for giving me a really good car today after yesterday’s frustrations.”
Renault F1 Team
Nico Hulkenberg (P6 - 2nd time in 2019)
Nico Hulkenberg
“I’m pleased with that today; my laps were clean and tidy, we progressed through the sessions well and deservedly qualified well inside the top ten. I’ve felt comfortable in the car since the beginning of the weekend and I’ve been driving well.
It would have been nice to be ahead of Carlos [Sainz]. It was tight in the midfield again, but we’ll take it and fight tomorrow for some strong points. It was a decent day’s work.”
Daniel Ricciardo (P10 - 4th time in 2019 )
Daniel Ricciardo
“I’ve not been that fast all weekend, so to get into Q3 was pretty good. That was our target and we got there. I had to use an extra set in Q1 and that meant I only had one new tyre run at the end of Q3 and it wasn’t quick enough to be higher than tenth.
We’ll do better tomorrow; we’re in a position to take points and we’ll be working hard to do that. Credit to Nico for his qualifying, he’s been fast this weekend.”
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
Romain Grosjean (P8 - 1st time in 2019)
Romain Grosjean
“It was a good qualifying session today. It was very difficult as the wind picked up a lot from FP3, that really put the balance off initially in the session. I was happy that we managed to finally get back into Q3. The balance was very different between some corners, maybe I need an adjustable front wing, that would help.
But seriously, we know the hybrid car we’re running doesn’t really like the wind, it was always going to be a bit of a challenge. We’re just happy that we were competitive today. Race pace was encouraging, so I hope we get a good one tomorrow.”
Kevin Magnussen P13 - 2nd time in 2019)
Kevin Magnussen
“It was a strong Q1, but then just messed it up in Q2 on my side, I lost it in seven and eight. I had very good pace in the car, so it’s a real bummer.
I don’t know how the race will go. It looked good yesterday in terms of race pace, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen (P9 - 2nd time in 2019)
Max Verstappen
“I always knew qualifying would be tricky on such a power sensitive circuit but the lap was good and there wasn’t much more in it. The wind picked up and it seemed to hurt us in the last sector which is normally our strongest point so I couldn’t really use the full potential of the car. Yesterday looked positive but Ferrari didn’t have their engines turned up and they always open it up in qualifying as we could see today.
The corners around here are mostly ninety degrees and very short, so you can’t gain a lot of lap time out of them but to be P4 and splitting the Mercedes is pretty good. With the penalty and starting ninth we need to make a clean start, stay alert and hope the people around us do the same. I think the realistic target is probably fifth but we will of course try to do better and it will be interesting to see what happens with Mercedes on a different strategy.”
Alexander Albon (P18 - 3rd time in 2019)
Alexander Albon
“There’s nothing really to say other than I went in a bit hot like Max did in FP3 and I lost the rear. There’s a tailwind in that corner and it just caught me out. When these cars go, they go quick. It was a silly mistake – that’s pretty much it and it’s just frustrating. I haven’t really had the confidence during the weekend and I’ve struggled since FP1 but it was starting to come together and I was feeling more comfortable and getting into a rhythm coming into qualifying.
I think this is one of those tracks where if you’re not confident in one corner, you’re not confident in any corner and that’s kind of how I felt up to qualifying. We’re starting out of place but I’m optimistic as the car feels good in the long runs and you can also overtake here. We’ve seen before when starting at the back that we can progress through the field so we’ll give it everything tomorrow.”
SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team
Sergio Pérez (P11 - 1st time in 2019)
Sergio Pérez
“We all expected a bit more today, especially with how tight the margins are here. We should have been in Q3, but when going into Turn 7 I hit the kerb harder than I should and lost some time there.
It was very, very close and it’s a shame, but I’m very optimistic for tomorrow. We have a quick car and I think we have a good opportunity to score points.”
Lance Stroll (P14 - 4th time in 2019)
Lance Stroll
“It started off well: I had the balance I was looking for in the first sector, through the medium-speed corners, and it was looking quite promising. Then, when I got to the high-speed Turn 7, I just turned in and lost the rear, I ran wide and it was really just downhill from there.
You have a bad corner and that leads to two or three bad corners. That’s where the lap time was lost. It’s a shame because I wanted more today – the whole team did. It is going to sting a little, but I think we can bounce back tomorrow and use the strategy to challenge for points.”
Alfa Romeo Racing
Antonio Giovinazzi (P12 - 2nd time in 2019)
Antonio Giovinazzi
“I tried my best today but in the end we fell just a bit short of the top ten. Starting from P12 tomorrow [because of Gasly’s penalty] with the possibility to choose the tyres can be a small advantage. It’s hard to tell where we stand when it comes to race pace, but I hope we can be competitive tomorrow.
Of course we wanted more coming into the session, but if we have a good start and a good strategy we can be in the fight for points. Nobody can predict what weather we’ll have tomorrow and if it starts to rain anything can happen. Having both cars in the top ten is the objective but the key is to continue improving.”
Kimi Räikkönen (P15 - 1st time in 2019)
Kimi Raikkonen
“It’s been a difficult weekend so far but I felt a lot better in qualifying. We made some big changes for this afternoon and improved the car quite a bit.
I was improving my time, but unfortunately I made a small mistake, went wide in turn ten and lost all the speed on the back straight. That was it – I would have easily been in Q2 without that.”
Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda
Pierre Gasly (P16 - 1st time in 2019)
Pierre Gasly
“It was so close today! I’m really happy with the lap I did, we knew it would be difficult to make it into the top 10 and we tried everything we could. I think it was one of my best laps for Toro Rosso in Q2 on my first run. I knew that on the second run I really needed to risk it if I wanted to improve, but I couldn’t manage to do it.
Every weekend we’re making a step and I think it was a positive Qualifying. We will line up P16 with the engine penalty, but we still have free tyre choice, so we will see what we can do with the strategy. We’ll push flat out and hopefully we can come back through the field.”
Daniil Kvyat (P20 - 1st time in 2019)
Daniil Kvyat
“It hasn’t been a very smooth weekend so far, but the most important day is tomorrow. We knew we were going to start from the back but it’s still a shame to miss Qualifying in my home race.
These things happen, we just need to accept it and try to do our best tomorrow for a strong race. I never give in, there’s still a chance to save this weekend. I’m a bit short on mileage because of the issues I’ve had, but I know the track, so I’ll try and find a good rhythm in the race.”
ROKiT Williams Racing
George Russel (P17 - 3rd time in 2019)
George Russell
“I think that was a good session. In Singapore we had a load of traffic on the out-lap. We planned to get out there ahead of the pack this time, but as soon as everyone else comes out of the pitlane it was a little bit too late for us, but it didn’t end up compromising us.
It was just a bit frustrating, fighting guys ahead of us, fighting guys trying to overtake behind me. It was just a bit scrappy. Nevertheless, the lap was really good, and our pace was closer than we anticipated. We’re slowly making steps and we’re heading in the right direction."
Robert Kubica (P19 - 5th time in 2019)
Robert Kubica
"It’s always nice to drive new circuits. Most of the corners are quite similar to each other, they are very short so you must carry speed with good stability.
Overall it is a challenging track, especially when you struggle with entry balance. It has been a difficult weekend so far, and I expect tomorrow to be the same."
✅ Check out 2019 Russian F1 GP Qualifying Report & Classification
✅ Check out 2019 F1 Championship Standings
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